Harrison’s ‘rumble is so last-gen’ rhetoric returns
In a bid to defend the lack of rumble in Microsoft’s upcoming motion controller, Kinect, a senior exec at the company has decided to undermine the value of haptic feedback.
Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft Game Studios’ oft-tracksuited general manager, told Edge that “the overwhelming thing we’ve discovered is that rumble is such a rudimentary form of haptic feedback”.
Tsunoda said it was “almost laughable” that the industry considers rumble as the “holy grail” of haptic feedback.
He said, “It’s not like a little rumble in your palm is your whole way of interacting with the world – it’s not like, ‘oh, I stubbed my toe and I get a little rumble in my palm’.”
“We’ve gone so far past anything that can be done with rumble, or that kind of restrictive thing you have to hold. It’s been creatively liberating to work on this stuff.”
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The imaginative passage is reminiscent of excuses previously used by former Sony WWS boss Phil Harrison, who in 2007 said ‘rumble is a last-generation technology’ when pressed on why the PS3 pads didn’t feature it.
After settling a lawsuit with haptics developer Immersion, Sony was free to release a rumble-enabled PS3 pad.
He said, “It’s not like a little rumble in your palm is your whole way of interacting with the world"
No, it's not... it's the world's way of interacting with YOU... BIG difference.
Play a racing game with no rumble and drive over a (wait for it...) rumble strip. The world sends you feedback to say "hey, you're on the rumble strip, let me show you what that feels like". It's a tactile sensation, that tells you where you are, without having to think about where you are... which is how feel works in real life. You know your fingers have hit a key, not because you see it happening, but because you get feedback to say "your finger has made contact with something".
So many people completely miss the point, or the ideal implementation of rumble. That's what causes misguided statements like Tsunoda's to be made. There's too much "shake the joypad a lot" and not enough relevant feedback.
I think I've missed something, this article doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Kinect doesn't feature a controller -- that's the core of the idea, how would rumble be added to it without the inclusion of some sort of controller or strap-on accessory?
How is this a bid to defend the decision to not have haptic feedback if the concept of Kinect itself makes such a thing impossible to begin with?
Odd!
